Search Results: valentine

Keeping Love Alive in the Present Moment

By Francine & Byron Pirola / February 13, 2025

Our romantic memories are the fabric of our couple history. When we reconnect with these memories, we reinvigorate our emotional connection in the present and set a positive tone for our future together.  The Power of Memory  The Hebrew word for “remember” literally means “make me present to you.” This beautiful insight captures the true…

Read More

Pursuing a Lasting Love

By Francine & Byron Pirola / February 7, 2025

  Lessons from St. Valentine | A reflection for World Marriage Day 2025  As we approach World Marriage Day on February 9th, we are reminded of another celebrated figure of marital devotion – St. Valentine. Today, his name evokes thoughts of flowers and romantic dinners.  Yet St. Valentine’s true legacy speaks to something far more…

Read More

Marriage Week Campaign

By Laura C / November 28, 2024

Marriage Week 2026 Leader Resources | 7-14 February Together with Purpose Four ways to promote Marriage Week & St Valentine’s Day in your community. 1: Intentional Couple’s Micro-Course (FREE) 2: St Valentine’s Day Printable Handout (FREE) 3: Marriage Enrichment  4: Support for Spouses in Troubled Marriages 1 FREE Gift: The Intentional Couple Micro-Course In one…

Read More

The Intentional Couple Micro Course for Leaders

By Laura C / October 10, 2024

The Intentional Couple Micro-Course Leaders Info If your community celebrates: 1. An Anniversary Mass for couples 2. St Valentine’s Day Mass 3. Any other occassion (e.g. Marriage enrichment retreat, Family Mass). We would like to offer a FREE Gift for your married couples… The Intentional Couple Micro-Course. Promotional Brochure We have 2 versions of this…

Read More

Called to Greatness

By Francine & Byron Pirola / April 26, 2024

The word ‘vocation’ comes from the Latin ‘vocare’ which means ‘to call’. Our primary vocation, the one we all share, is the vocation to holiness. We are called to follow Christ and be in relationship with him. From the Pope to a newborn – it is the same call and equally compelling. A secondary vocation…

Read More

Five Strategies to Improve your Marriage

By Francine & Byron Pirola / June 9, 2023

Is it possible to improve a troubled marriage without the cooperation of our spouse? Read on for our top five strategies to improve your marriage. A lot of people feel trapped in a dissatisfying or troubled marriage. They feel powerless to ‘fix’ it because their spouse refuses to join them in counselling or a marriage…

Read More

Made for More

By Francine & Byron Pirola / February 10, 2023

For two decades we’ve promoted the idea of putting the ‘saint’ back into St Valentine’s Day. Every year we blog, pin, post, and remind the Catholic networks in our database of the day’s origin and significance. It’s become so much of a habit it now feels strange for us to mention the event without ‘saint’…

Read More

#1 Marriage as a Mission

By Francine & Byron Pirola / May 25, 2022

What does it mean to make ‘marriage our mission’? With our guest, Philipa Caulfield, we break it down and explore how we’ve done it and why we need it. Guest: Philipa Caulfield, with her husband Luke, are SmartLoving super-sponsors. They’ve been accompanying engaged couples for over ten years and have featured in some of the…

Read More
st valentine

Smiling Saints

By Francine & Byron Pirola / February 10, 2022

St Valentine is the one saint with a feast day (Feb 14) that is known by millions of people, including non-Christians. But how many know why he is a saint?   The back story is that Valentine, a Roman priest at the time of Claudius II, was imprisoned for conducting secret weddings against the orders of…

Read More

The M-Team

By Isabella Cooper / July 16, 2021

Building a Parish Marriage Ministry If families are the foundation of the society and marriage is the core relationship in the family, there’s an important parish ministry required if we are to have any hope of strengthen society. Church communities have much to offer in establishing local marriage initiatives but they need coordination and focussed…

Read More